Memories
by NerdyNobody
Summary: The NERDS are missing. There is no trace of them to be found anywhere. Soon enough, a detective in cohorts with them has been called in to help solve the case. And he has help.
1. The beginning to a case

Case file 523: Missing case

Missing: Ruby Peet, Jackson Jones, Duncan Dewey, Heathcliff Hodges, Julio Escala, Matilda Choi (See files)

Case description: Five weeks ago, six children went missing at the same time, at the same place. These children were on a mission as they would usually be. However, at approximately 4:36 PM their signals suddenly dropped off the charts with no warning. When recon came in to scout the area, there was nothing. No signs of struggle, no signs of fighting, no leftover footprints, no objects of interest, nothing. They considered treating it as a KIA case, but decided that the circumstances were too unusual, so they instead treated it as a MIA case. So, like they would, they have decided to call me in to investigate.

Case status: Unsolved

Case notes: This has been my first case in a while, so I am happy to take it. My sister will accompany me on this case, as it seems very unusual to me, and I'm not sure I would be able to take care of it myself. Her abilities could prove useful for this. I pity the families of these children. They must be terrified.

A large green "ACCEPTED" was stamped across the top of the file, right below the red "TOP SECRET" stamp. This wasn't the first case Shayne had taken for the NERDS. Quite the opposite in fact. After all, he did used to be a member. Scope, was his name back then. He was able to pick out the tiniest details from a scene, and use them to his advantage. However, that was neither here nor there. He currently worked as a detective in coherence with the NERDS. He wasn't usually called in by them, as detectives weren't usually needed. He hadn't been called in for at least four years, but this seemed to be a special case. He pushed his short black hair out of his face, and pushed his glasses back up. Hazel eyes scanned over the file once again, a pale finger tapping on the desk in front of him.

Finally, he pushed his seat back, standing up and grabbing his jacket and car keys. A few hurried footsteps ran down the hall, and stopped behind him. He turned, and just as he expected, his sister, Kayla, stood there. She was only seven, but she was a smart kid. Her long black hair was tied into two buns on the bottom of her head, and two grey-green eyes that faded to yellow on the inside sparkled up at him. She had a large grin on her face, and she was bouncing up and down on her heels excitedly.

"Ready to go kiddo?" Shayne asked. Kayla nodded furiously, grinning even bigger.

"Yup! I got all my stuff!" Her high pitched voice answered back. She pointed to her back, where there was a small fluffy pink backpack with a unicorn on it. It's contents jingled as she moved.

"Alrighty, lets get going then. Its a long drive." Shayne said, opening the front door and gesturing out. Kayla ran outside, next to the black van outside.

He clicked the button on his keys, and the doors clicked open. Kayla opened the back door, and struggled to clamber inside before shutting the doors behind her. Shayne chuckled before hopping in the drivers seat and starting up the car. He pulled his phone out, connecting the AUX and putting on some music. He revved the engine playfully a few times, gaining a few laughs from Kayla, before finally pulling out of the driveway.

"Hey Kayla, buddy. Mind calling up the director and telling them we're on our way?" Shayne asked, turning his head toward Kayla. She nodded, taking off her backpack. She fumbled around in it for a second before pulling out a phone. Shayne reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper with a number on it, and handing it back to Kayla. She dialed the number amd put the phone to her ear. A few seconds a muffled voice came through and Kayla began talking.

"...Hello? Is this the director?...What do you mean "how did I get this number and how do I know who you are? You introduced yourself and gave us your number silly! ...I'm the detectives sister. You called us in for the missing case right? ... I'm helping. Thats why I'm comimg. ...Shayne's driving now so he can't talk. He just said to say that we're on our way. ...Yeah ok, bye." Kayla hung up and looked at Shayne.

"The director was a butt." The girl said bluntly. Shayne had to hold back his laughing fit in favor of not crashing them both into their immediate deaths.

{*Lays down and cries for an hour* Soooooooo, uhhhhhh. Yeah. Im doing another fic with ocs on impulse. I cant help it. I just had a sudden great idea and i had to act on it. This is getting out of hand. Anyway, again, im not sure when ill be able to work on this. Imma try to juggle all three of these fics and get them on an actual time track, but depression has been sucking away at my motivation and i feel tired a lot, so we can only see how well that goes. Im gonna try though.}


	2. Abilities

Shayne and Kayla had finally arrived in Virginia, at a small hotel where they would stay for the duration of the case. Shayne was helping Kayla pull her bags, and his, out of the car. They had placed them there before they left, just so they could make sure nothing was forgotten. The two walked inside, acquiring a room before taking the elevator up to it. Once there, Kayla promptly slung her bags onto a bed and jumped onto it face first. Shayne placed his bags in the closet, laughing lightly.

"So, where are we going now that we got stuff set up here? How's this gonna go? I wanna get working!" Kayla cried. Shayne rolled his eyes, ruffling her hair.

"We're going to go over to The Playground and meet up with the director first of all and I'm going to talk with him for a while. We're going to set up some meetings with the families of the missing kids for questioning. That's where you come in. Look around, see if you can find anything about them. If they were acting strange or not, you know the drill. After that we go to the sight of the disappearances and check that out too. We're only here to drop off our things, so let's go." He replied, gesturing back over to the door.

The two left once again, and they were on their way. It wasn't that long until they were in the driveway of a school. Shayne looked around.

"Wow. This place really hasn't changed much." He said, opening his door and stepping out. Kayla jumped out with him, looking around as well. She pointed over towards the front door.

"Hey, is that the guy we're supposed to be meeting with?" She asked. Shayne looked to where she was pointing. Standing there was a tall man leaning slightly onto a cane in his hand. He noticed them, and Shayne waved, jogging over.

"Hello! Would you be Mr.Brand?" He asked. The man nodded.

"Yes, that would be me. Are you the one we called in to help investigate?" Brand said.

"That I am. It's nice to meet you. Always nice to have new directors in the mix. I hear you've been doing a good job." Shayne replied, reaching forward and shaking his hand.

"I'm flattered. Come on, we can talk more inside The Playground." He said. Kayla jogged up, waving up at him.

"Hi sir! I'm helping too!" She said. Brand looked at her, surprised.

"Ah, you must be the one I talked to on the phone. Is there any reason you've brought a child with you?" He said to Shayne. He grinned, patting Kayla on the head.

"We can show you in The Playground." Shayne replied, walking in. A few minutes later, the three dropped in. Kayla gaped at the room, turning circles to look at the area. Soon, a woman appeared.

"Hello, you must be Shayne, correct? I'm Ms.Deprankova. It's nice to meet you." She said. Shayne nodded, shaking her hand.

"Likewise. Now, Mr.Brand, you were wondering why I brought my sister along, correct?" He turned to Brand. Brand nodded, looking over at her.

"Yes, that would be correct. She is not part of the NERDS as far as I know." He replied. Shayne snapped his fingers, turning Kayla's attention to him.

"Right. She isn't. She has a little ability called phychometry. Or put simply, the ability to see memories in objects. Its a natural ability, unlike how the upgrades here work." He said. The other two's eyes widened, and they looked down to Kayla, who was smiling and bouncing on her heels next to Shayne.

"I...find that hard to believe. Do you have proof of this?" Brand said. Shayne grinned.

"I'm glad you asked. Kayla, show him." He said. Kayla nodded, walking forward and grabbing onto Brand's cane.

"Gonna hold this for a bit." She said. Suddenly, her eyes faded to white, and started to glow brightly. Brand and Deprankova backed up slightly in bewilderment. As soon as it started, it stopped. Kayla's eyes went back to normal, and she looked up at Brand.

"You really didn't like this thing when you got it. Thought it was like a snake. You had to get it cause your leg got taken out by a bomb on the battlefield. You nearly lost it a few times too. Dropped it in a pool once." She said, giggling. Brand stared for a while before speaking.

"Well...that was likely the strangest thing I've ever seen."


	3. The first family

small house and peered at the address on the piece of paper in his hand.

"Alright. This should be the place." He said. He opened the door and stepped out, shifting his bag onto his shoulder while Kayla followed. Shayne walked over to the door and knocked.

"One second!" A voice called. There was some crashing and loud noises. Shayne and Kayla shared a look. A second later the door opened to reveal a man. Shayne reached his hand out for a shake.

"Hello. You must be Mr.Dewey. My name is Shayne, and I'm the one here to investigate the disappearances of your son, as well as the other children." He said. Avery nodded, shaking his hand.

"Ah, yes, come in. I'll go get my wife and daughter so we can talk." He said, walking back into the house. Shayne and Kayla followed him.

They sat down in a couch with a small table in front of them and waited. Soon enough, Avery appeared back with a woman and a older teenage girl.

"Hello, you're our detective right? I'm Aiah." The woman said. Shayne nodded.

"A pleasure to meet you. The circumstances that we are meeting under are unfortunate." He replied. The teenager looked at Kayla.

"Why'd he bring a kid?" She asked. Shayne patted her head.

"She'll be helping with the case." He said. The family looked confused. Kayla giggled, patting her legs excitedly.

"Yup! I haven't helped in a while! My powers have been getting rusty." She said. This only seemed to bring more confusion.

"Powers?" Aiah asked. Kayla nodded, looking at Shayne. He nodded back and Kayla grinned. She reached forward, grabbing the table in front of them as her eyes faded to white and began to glow. The family was taken aback, staring in shock. Kayla's eyes stopped glowing, and she leaned back onto the couch.

"You got this table a couple months ago at ikea. Avery spilled some coffee on it once. You're missing a screw on one of the legs that rolled under the couch. Nobody could find it. It's under the corner by the way." She said. The family looked dumbstruck. Aiah leaned back, looking over the corner of the couch, reaching down and feeling around. She froze, and slowly lifted a screw up in her fingers, staring.

"Kayla has the little ability of seeing memories. She will be of great assistance." Shayne said.

He suddenly shook his head, frowning.

"We should get to work now. Would you grant permission for my sister to investigate the child's room while I ask you some questions?" He asked. The family looked at eachother. Avery nodded.

"Alright, Tanisha, would you show her over there while we talk?" He said. Tanisha frowned but got up, gesturing for Kayla to follow. She hopped up from her place, jogging over to Tanisha and walking down the hallway. Shayne turned to them, pulling his bag off his shoulder and putting it on the ground. He pulled a notebook out of it, as well as a pen and a file. He clicked the end of the pen, making the tip come out. He opened the file before jotting a few things down inside of the notebook.

"Now, I'm sure this is painful for you, but please try to be as truthful as possible or else we may not be able to get the information that we need." He said, crossing his arms on his lap.


	4. Where is it

Tanisha led the small child down the hallway towards her brothers room, sometimes glancing down at her. She was skipping along happily, almost uncaring. She would brush a hand up against something occasionally and her eyes would flash as she paused for a second before continuing to follow her. They soon arrived at a door, which Tanisha gestured to.

"Alright. Here's his room. What are you supposed to be doing anyway?" She said. Kayla entered the room, doing a small twirl to take it all in.

"Well, there are a couple things! I can check the memories and see if there was anything weird going on with the missing person-"

"Duncan. His name is Duncan." Tanisha cut Kayla off, crossing her arms. Kayla stared for a second before nodding in understanding.

"Right. If there was anything weird going on with Duncan before the disappearance. That, and there sometimes are objects in a persons life that are really important to them that have strong feelings connected to it. We can use that to actually kinda track, well, get a general feeling anyway, of where he went! I shouldn't take way too long unless I find one of those. So I'm just gonna get to work now so I can get out of your hair." She said before walking over to the bed. She grabbed it, and the world around her suddenly seemed to twist and swirl. Moving pictures and sounds blurred through her vision, showing her whatever may have been hiding in it's memories. She flashed through a few times, but nothing out of the ordinary, other than the fact that the room could apparently transform. She blinked back into reality, taking a second to get her bearings. She looked back at Tanisha, who still looked mildly perturbed by the moments she would do that.

Kayla continued through the room, looking into memories and piecing together bits and pieces of information on the boy who had lived here. He seemed nice. It was sad that he had dissapeared like that. She could feel how hard it had hit the family, even Tanisha, who didnt exactly seem like the biggest fan of her little brother. She once again scanned the room, looking for any little thing that she may have missed. She saw a small pile of metal, screws,and motherboards on the desk next to the bed. Duncan seemed to have been building something before he had dissapeared. Kayla jogged over to it, reaching her hand out and touching it like she usually did. But something was wrong. This was obviously something important to him, but unlike usual, she wasnt brought into a memory. Not...a regular memory, anyway.

She was in the same room, but everything was grayscale. No one was there. Everything was in place just as it was before she had entered the memory, but it felt cold. Devoid of any feeling at all. Like it was...frozen. She looked around, jogging over to the window and looking out. The outside was just as greyscale as the inside. The sky was pitch black. No wind blew through the trees, and there was no sound whatsoever. She took a jog back out the door and around the house. There was still not a soul to be found. She exited the house, walking down the empty streets of the town. She suddenly froze. At the end of the street, was a small boy. He was similarly greyscale as everything else in this place, but there was no denying, that was Duncan Dewey. She reached forward, about to call out, but she was suddenly slammed back into her own body against her will.

Her nose was bleeding, one of the side affects of using her abilities for too long, and her head hurt and felt weird and foggy. She was laying on the ground looking up at the ceiling, and much to her surprise, she saw her brother, as well as the family standing over her looking worried, as well as disturbed. When Shayne realized she was back, he took a breath of relief and hugged her.

"Oh thank god. Are you ok? What happened there? You never did that before." He said rapidly. Kayla shook the leftover fog from her head before blinking at them.

"I'm fine, but I think I'm going to need to talk you in private back at the hotel. I don't want to get anyones hopes up or disturb them. I don't even really know what just happened." She said. Shayne nodded at her, standing up and looking at the family.

"Alright. I think we have been bothering you for too long. We must be taking our leave since we have what we need." He said. They got a tissue for Kayla's nose, and were on their way back.


	5. Questions that matter

"Now, I'm sure this is painful for you, but please try to be as truthful as possible or else we may not be able to get the information we need." Shayne said, crossing his arms over his lap. Aiah and Avery looked at eachother for a moment before nodding.

"We understand. What do you need to ask us?" Avery said. Shayne flipped up a paper, looking over a few things written on it.

"First of all, was your child acting strange, or out of character at all before his disappearance?" He asked.

"No, he seemed fine. Just as jubilant as ever, if not more. He just got some new tech to play around with from the NERDS. Very attached to it." Aiah replied, shaking her head. Shayne nodded, writing something down onto a different piece of paper in front of him, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Right then. Next question. Did your child send you any signals of distress before he went missing? Any texts or voice messages or anything of that sort?" He said. The parents both shook their heads.

"No, we didn't get anything. We didn't even know he was missing until a day later." Avery answered. Shayne nodded, jotting something else down.

"Right. Was your child planning on going anywhere before he went missing?" He asked. The two looked at eachother, seeming to think for a moment before turning back to him.

"No, not as far as we know. He occasionally goes over to Julio's house to hang out, but he didn't have anything planned before he disappeared I don't think." Avery said. Once again, he was met with a nod from Shayne as he jotted something else down.

"That's understandable. Now, if I'm correct, it says you've known about your childs involvement in the NERDS for quite a long time. Is that true?" He said. The parents nodded.

"That's right." Aiah replied.

"Good. Can you tell me if his upgrades were acting strange or out of order at all before his disappearance?" Shayne asked. He was once again met with negative shakes of the head.

"No. His upgrades were just fine before. Nothing out of the normal. Climbing walls and getting on the ceiling and whatnot, again, normal. Despite the fact that I keep telling him not to walk on the walls at home." Aiah said. Ah, so that was likely why there were a few small footprints of something that looked like dried glue on the walls and ceiling. Interesting upgrades. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but there was a sudden loud cry of distress, as well as a small thud from somewhere in the house.

"Hey! The kid just collapsed!" Came a loud call from somewhere down the hall. Shayne jerked slightly, eyebrows furrowing. He looked at the parents before the three hopped up from there seats and quickly made their way to the room. Tanisha was looking back and forth between them, and the small girl who was laying face down and the floor. Shayne was quickly at his sister's side, and he rolled her over onto her back to look at her.

His eyes widened as he saw what she looked like. Her nose was quickly beginning to bleed, and her eyes had begun to glow, but they seemed to be flickering and fading at random intervals. Black and white dots danced across her eyes, much like the static of a tv.

"Kayla! Kayla, answer me. Are you there? Wake up!" Shayne said, shaking her.

"What's happening? Is this normal? Does she always do this?" Aiah asked, looking on in a worried fashion. Shayne shook his head quickly.

"No. Not normal. She can sometimes do something similar when she finds something of extreme significance, but never this." He replied. Nothing changed for a few seconds, but suddenly, Kayla's eyes faded back to normal, and she looked over at her brother. When Shayne realized she was back, he took a breath of relief and hugged her.

"Oh thank god. Are you ok? What happened there? You never did that before." He said rapidly. Kayla seemed to shake something from her head, blinking.

"I'm fine, but I think I'm going to need to talk you in private back at the hotel. I don't want to get anyones hopes up or disturb them. I don't even really know what just happened." She said. Shayne nodded at her, standing up and looking at the family.

"Alright. I think we have been bothering you for too long. We must be taking our leave since we have what we need." He said. They got a tissue for Kayla's nose, and were on their way back.


	6. A piece of the puzzle

Kayla draped herself over her bed of the hotel, rubbing circles in her temples with an ice pack on top of her forehead. She had a giant migraine almost as soon as they left the Dewey household. Shayne was sitting crosslegged on his own bed, laptop balanced in his lap and different notes and files strewn beside him. He had a frustrated look, looking between the notes and his laptop as he typed furiously.

"That wasn't a very informative visit. They truly did just completely disappear with no notice. Bizarre. And extremely frustrating. After we have our little convos with the families, I would very much like to interrogate Mr Brand on exactly what type of mission those children were on. Although that might be slightly hard given that I no longer have that type of security clearance. Still, we both know I have my ways of working information out of people whether they like it or not." He said. Kayla hummed in agreement, balancing a pillow on her feet, raised straight above her. She kicked it up a few times before letting it fall onto her chest.

"Hey Shayne? Can I talk to you about something?" She asked, turning her head to him. Shayne drew his attention from the laptop to her.

"Oh! Of course. You did say you wanted to tell me something earlier now didn't you?" He replied, scolding himself inwardly for forgetting. Kayla nodded, sitting up while putting one hand up to keep the ice pack in place.

"Yeah. It's about that weird thing that happened. It wasn't like anything I've ever done before." She said. Shayne looked curious, closing the laptop and placing it to the side before hopping off his bed and sitting next to Kayla on hers.

"Alright, shoot. What happened there?" He questioned.

"Well, it was kinda freaky to be honest. The thing that started it was one of those really significant memory things, but it didn't do what it usually did. When I touched it something happened and I was suddenly in the same room I was in before but it was all greyscale and scary. Nobody was there and it just felt...frozen. And dead. There weren't any feelings there. Usually when I go into memories, scenes will play out depending on what time I aim the memories to be in, and I can usually feel what the people close to whatever object I'm using are feeling. I can't really roam around. This was different though. I was in some kind of different world or something. I actually walked out of the house and down the streets for a while. While I was there I saw that boy we were looking for! I tried to get his attention, but I got yanked out before I could." She informed, making small motions with her free hand as she did so.

Shayne looked bewildered for a moment, taking in the info he was given. He rushed back over to his bed, rolling to the other side of it to grab his journal and quickly began jotting things down.

"Are you sure that was the missing child?" He asked as he did so. Kayla nodded.

"Yup. I saw the picture in his file, so that was definitely him." She said with confidence. Shayne pushed up his glasses as he wrote furiously, theories and possibilities buzzing through his head like an angered hive of wasps. What could it mean? His head was beginning to ache just thinking about it.

"We are going to need more investigation on this subject. Kayla, do me a favour would you? The next house we go to, I would like you to search very very hard for one of the significance objects. I would like to know if what happened was a one off thing, or something that may lead us to something more important. This may even be the key to cracking this case wide open!" He said excitedly.

Kayla clapped happily, a wide grin stretching across her face as she bounced up and down on the bed slightly. Even though it caused the ice pack to drop onto her lap. She didn't particularly care, considering her migraine was almost completely gone, and the pack had warmed to room temperature. She quickly tossed it back in the fridge of the room. Shayne closed his journal once again, piling up his notes and whatnot neatly before placing them inside the bedside table in between the beds and leaning back.

"Alright, I think that's enough excitement for one day. The both of us should be going to sleep now. We have another meeting tomorrow at 7:30. Don't want to be late." He said, reaching over to the lamp and pulling on the small string on it, plunging the room into darkness. Kayla made a few noises of discontent, but eventually settled down to sleep. This would certainly be an interesting case.


	7. D a\?

Soft footfalls echoed through the empty streets of the strange, seemingly unfamiliar town, as a small boy walked along. He couldn't remember who he was, or really much of anything for that matter. He didn't know how long he had been here, but it was all he knew. The buildings and streets seemed like they should mean something, but in all truth, they didn't. He couldn't feel anything either. It was weird, not having any emotions. But he couldn't bring himself to care about it for some reason. The world was dark and cold. Ironic, seeing as there was no wind, or anything of the sort that could make it cold. It just was. Why he was there was a complete mystery to him. At some point in the past, he had just opened his eyes, and there he was. Standing in an unfamiliar street, in an unfamiliar town, in an unfamiliar world. That was the earliest, as well as only, thing he could remember. For all he knew, he had just been created.

Sometimes, he would walk along a road, or see some building, that seemed like it should seem familiar. Not knowing what they meant pushed some semblance of frustration into his mind, although it never lasted long. Sometimes, as he walked along, he would see strange creatures. Void black, and vaguely humanoid, with long limbs and sharp claws on the ends of their arms, resembling hands. Their eyes were large circles on the front of their otherwise featureless faces. They didn't seem like they wanted to be seen, and often times kept to themselves. But on a rare occasion, one would pop up in an alley, or a building, or on top of a roof, and simply watch him for a minute, as if they were evaluating him. They had never attacked, or even got remotely close for that matter. Any time he would get close, they would suddenly scurry away on four legs, disappearing into the dark. He wanted to call them something, but he hadn't thought of anything yet.

He couldn't do much of anything, other than continue walking, and hope that maybe something would happen. For the longest time, nothing did. However, at one point, that wasn't the case anymore. He had been sitting down, when there was a sudden pulse. A flash of feeling. It quite nearly knocked him off balance in truth. He stood up, whipping around. Something had changed. He didn't know what, but something had. The air wavered with some kind of disturbance. He made his way more towards it, looking around all the while. The closer he got, the more that some kind of feeling tugged in his chest. It was more than he had felt in what seemed like a long time, and he welcomed it. He stopped walking for a second, turning down the road. The disturbance felt stronger here. All of a sudden, another set of footsteps echoed out from behind him. They stopped. He began to turn, trying to find the source of them, but there was a bright flash of light, and everything was suddenly back to normal.

There wasn't a disturbance anymore. However, along with the disturbance, all semblance of feeling was gone as well. He knew if he could feel something, he would be disappointed. Sad, even. But in place of that, was something resembling curiosity. He wanted to know where that disturbance had gone, and where it had originated from. Maybe if he was able to find the origin, he would be able to figure something out about this world he had been placed in. It was something to do at least, so there wasn't any way he was complaining. He looked forward, to where the disturbance had come from, and began walking. Just like he always had. Moving forward towards what could possibly hold the answers he was looking for about this place. About himself. About everything. Simply knowing his own name would even be enough for him. Who knows what he would find? He certainly didn't.


	8. New place new memories

Kayla kicked her legs slightly as the car rode along the streets, licking at a quickly melting ice cream cone, attempting to keep it from dribbling all over the place. The radio played churned out some light and upbeat song from the 90s while Shayne hummed along with it.

"Are we there yet?" Kayla asked, looking over the seat to Shayne.

"Almost. The house is a couple more streets down." He replied simply. Kayla cheered, lifting her hands up above her head. Shayne laughed a bit with her. She was happy for someone who had a full on temper tantrum when he had to wake her up that morning. Which she continued until he got her the ice cream. The car drove into a small road with a couple houses lining the sides.

"Alright. If the directions are correct, the house should be the third one to the left." Shayne said. He proceeded into said driveway, parking the car before hopping out, Kayla following quickly. The two made their way to the front door, where Shayne quickly pressed the small button next to the door, ringing the doorbell.

Almost immediately as they did that, loud barking echoed out from inside the house. Kayla blinked, looking up at Shayne.

"Doesn't sound like a very nice dog." She observed. He nodded as a voice came from the house over the barking.

"Butch! Be quiet! One sec, I'll be right there! Chaz, get Butch would you?" someone called. A couple footsteps walked quickly to the door, and it clicked open, revealing a man. He looked confused when he saw the two, opening his mouth to question them, but Shayne stopped him.

"Hello sir. My name is Shayne. I'm the detective researching your sons disappearance. Pleasure to meet you." He said, reaching out a hand. The mans eyes widened for a moment in realisation before going to shake his hand.

"Oh! Of course. Nice to meet you too. Uh, come in and we can get down to business." He said, gesturing inside. Kayla and Shayne nodded, following him.

"Chaz! Get over here! The detective is here!" The man called, leading them into a living room.

The two plopped down onto a couch, and another, seemingly an older teen, boy appeared. He gave a small wave, and a small confused look to the child.

"Hey." He said simply, sitting down next to his dad, who patted his shoulder.

"This is Chaz, my other son." He said. Shayne nodded, smiling to him.

"Nice to meet you. Although the circumstances are unfortunate." He said. The man nodded, frowning slightly.

"Yes. Very much so. Can I ask how this is going to go? I've never actually had to be questioned for a missing person before." He replied. Shayne laced his fingers together.

"Well, considering the circumstances of his disappearance, as well as his participation in the NERDS, my questions are going to be a bit different than what a normal investigation would entail. While I ask questions, my little sister here will go up to his room and do some memory checking, to make sure things are as they should be. There was a small incident at the last place concerning some powerful memories that I'm curious to see if they will repeat. I hope you don't mind?" He answered.

The other two looked immediately confused, looking at eachother for a moment.

"Um, memory checking?" The man asked. Shayne nodded in confirmation.

"Yes. Memory checking. Kayla, mind showing them?" He said, looking to said child. She nodded, looking around for a moment before settling on a dog collar on the side of the couch, grabbing it. Her eyes lit up into a bright light as the other two looked on in amazement and slight horror. It stopped, and she looked back at them.

"You really have to throw water balloons at the dog just to wash him?" She asked with a sceptical look. Shayne patted her head at the other twos dumbstruck looks.

"Thus, memory checking. Again, I hope you don't mind her snooping a bit." He said. The man shook himself slightly, shaking his head.

"No, of course not. Whatever helps. Chaz, can you lead her up to Jackson's room?" He asked. Chaz shrugged, still bewildered.

"Yeah sure. Come on." He said, gesturing over to a stairway to the side. Kayla followed him. Shayne watched them go before turning back.

"Now, I'm sure that you know this already, but please be truthful. I don't want any misinformation that may lead us away from a way to find your son."


	9. Another episode

Kayla hopped up the stairs after the the boy, scanning the upstairs area with curious eyes. Chaz gestured to one of the doors along the hall of the upstairs as he walked over to it.

"Uh, so, this is my brothers room. What are you even gonna do when your in there? I mean, like, I know you're checking memories or whatever, but what is it supposed to do for us in finding him?" He asked. Kayla grabbed the handle and opened the door before stepping in and looking around.

"Well, I mean, what I'm doing is more or less checking if he was acting off or feeling weird before he disappeared. We didn't get any luck on the visit to the last place, but a weird thing did happen that I'm not gonna get into. Anyway that's just the gist of it. You can stay and watch or go downstairs and help your dad out with the questioning if you want." She explained. Chaz made a small face.

"Nah. I'm staying here and making sure you don't mess up anything." He said. Kayla gave him a side eye with raised brows, slightly offended that he thought she would mess things up. She shrugged it off however, deciding that it was fair.

At that, she began her search. Putting a hand against different objects in the room and observing the memories and feelings attached to them. To her frustration, nothing seemed anything out of the ordinary, just like the other place. However, a certain memory stuck out to her. It wasn't exactly anything of importance to the investigation, but still interesting. She saw a scene of a large graveyard surround her. A boy that she recognized from the files was sitting in front of one. It was raining, and mixed waves of emotions flowed through her. It was silent for a while, but soon enough, a few other children suddenly appeared. It was the other kids on the file, one of which she remembered from that strange episode she had at the last place. His team. They met, and began talking. The boy was starting to get defensive and angry at the others, but eventually just turned away from them and plopped back onto the ground in front of the grave. Quiet again. One of the others in the team opened an umbrella, holding it out. One of the others tapped her nose, speaking to someone before walking to the boys and dropping on her butt beside him. The others soon followed suit and sat beside him. They started talking, and the mood quickly began to lift. Kayla took her hand off the necklace finally.

She continued looking around, occasionally saying something to Chaz, mostly questions. It was continuing to get more and more frustrating. There still wasn't anything. She glared at nothing, setting her hand down on a picture on the bedside table in the room. The scene flashed, and she was hit with a sudden burst of different emotions. She stumbled back, but as soon as her foot hit the ground behind her, color began draining from every nook and cranny of the world, leaving it empty. She blinked. It was another episode. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she went to jog out of the house. Like last time, it was empty, and not a soul was to be found. Again, like last time, it felt dead and frozen. She walked around the empty streets, this time determined to find something. She looked up into the pitch black sky, as if it would hail an answer. It didn't, but it did lead to one. She looked down, and sitting with his head resting on crossed arms across the windowsill, was the boy, just as grayscale as the rest of the world. She was determined not to be pulled from him so soon this time.

She sprinted into the building, turning down hallways and running up stairs to were she saw him. And sure enough, there he was. He had sat up, and was looking down the hall at her. He blinked at her.

"Who are you?" He asked. Kayla opened and closed her mouth for a second before shaking her head.

"My names Kayla. I'm gonna get you out of here. Or, try to at least. Come on!" She said, walking forward and grabbing his hand. The world shivered and shifted again. She wasn't there anymore. Her eyes shot open and she jerked up, coincidentally smashing her head into her brothers. The two gripped their heads and looked at eachother.

"Ow. Crud. Are you alright Kayla? It looked like another one of those things!" Shayne said. Kayla frowned, nodding.

"We have to wrap this up and leave if you're done. I got some new things to tell you." Kayla answered back. Shayne nodded in agreement. The two finished the visit, apologising for the freakout, and left. Kayla, luckily, did not seem to have a nosebleed this time around, which was an improvement.


	10. A slight frustration

Now, I'm sure that you know this already, but please be truthful. I don't want any misinformation that may lead us away from a way to find your son." Shayne said, crossing one leg over the other. The man across from him nodded slightly.

"Of course. I wouldn't lie about any of this." He replied. Shayne hummed in confirmation, pulling a couple files and a small notebook from his jacket and shuffling around them for a second. He finally placed them onto the table, pulling a pen from his pocket and clicking it.

"Now, as I said before, there are some questions I need you to answer. First and foremost, had your son been acting strange at all before his disappearance?" He asked. The man made a small gesture with his hand.

"Yes, a bit, but that was because something went up between him and his crush. He was down about it." He said. Shayne gave him a curious look, but said nothing.

"That's too bad. Things like that have a tendency to hurt for a while. He'll get over it eventually. No matter, second question. Since you know about his involvement with the NERDS, can I ask if you were seeing any abnormalities in his upgrades that you could see?" He asked. The man shook his head.

"No. Not that I ever saw anyway. He doesn't use his upgrades in the house unless he really needs to. Last time he did was to take a big branch off the house that broke off from one of the trees." He answered. Shayne sighed, eyebrows furrowing for a second.

"I see. Next question, had your son sent any kind of texts or things of that kind to show any signs that he was in distress?" He asked. Once again, another shake of the head.

"No. He only sent a text to tell me he was going on another mission and would be late for lunch." He said. Shayne nodded, flipping his pen around his fingers.

"I see. Was he going to go anywhere before he went missing?" He said.

"No. He didn't have any plans to go anywhere that day other than the library, surprisingly. He never usually liked even reading." The man stated, laughing slightly at the end before frowning again. Shayne rubbed his temples, leaning forward onto his knees with a groan.

"I'm sorry, but I'm just a little frustrated. The other place I had gone to said the same things. No traces anywhere. We only got a small clue, but even that was too confusing to be of any help. I'm just hoping that the other places have some kind of clue." He said. The man across from him opened his mouth, but the two were interrupted by a small thud and a noise of surprise from the upstairs. A door slammed open and suddenly Chaz slid into the area on the top of the stairs with a panicked look.

"Uh, the kid just did something weird and passed out! Or, she might not be passed out? I don't know. Please help." He cried. Shayne froze for a second in surprise. But he quickly jumped up, along with the other man, and followed Chaz to the room.

When Shayne entered, he immediately saw Kayla laying out on the floor, eyes static. He dropped on one knee next to her, eyebrows furrowed heavily.

"Again?" He muttered, grabbing her shoulders. Her nose wasn't bleeding this time around he saw. He shook her lightly a few times, attempting to snap her from the episode.

"What's happening? Is she alright? Why are her eyes like that?" The man asked. Shayne frowned, shaking his head.

"We don't know. This has only happened once before. I think she might likely be fine afterwards, but I can't guarantee." He replied quickly. For a minute, she didn't change, but the static suddenly faded, and her eyes closed. Another few seconds, but her eyes suddenly shot open and she jerked up, smashing her head into her brothers. The two gripped their heads and looked at eachother.

"Ow. Crud. Are you alright Kayla? It looked like another one of those things!" Shayne said. Kayla frowned, nodding.

"We have to wrap this up and leave if you're done. I got some new things to tell you." Kayla answered back. Shayne nodded in agreement. After apologizing for the scare and wrapping everything up, they were back on the road to the hotel, and Shayne planned to ask Kayla about what happened as soon as they arrived, unlike the time before.

{Im really sorry for the small dissapearing act i just pulled! I got pretty sick, and on top of that I also have an apprentice program thats taking up a lot of my time and is leaving me pretty tired. So I took a break for a bit. Hopefully I can get all of this back on schedule! Again, sorry for that and I will get cool kid and taking the world by storm back on track as well. See you next update!}


	11. Sit n' talk

Kayla sat crosslegged on her bed, watching cartoon characters dance across the tv screen set on the table in the front of the room, completely enraptured. Shayne was looking over his notes and files while typing away at the computer sitting beside him, a piece of licorice hanging limply from his mouth. He leaned away from the computer, cracking his knuckles and rolling his wrists while looking back over at kayla.

"Headache better?" He asked simply. Kayla nodded, keeping her eyes glued to the television.

"Yep! It was better this time! No nosebleeds either!" She replied happily. Shayne hummed and nodded, looking at the television as well. It was a kids cartoon show called Bunnies funnies. Kayla's favorite. She watched it whenever it was on when they were home, even if the series was currently in a hiatus and was only playing reruns.

The episode eventually ended, giving way to the commercial break. Kayla finally looked away from the tv and over at Shayne.

"Ok! We can talk now! That's the last episode for the night." She said. Shayne nodded, turning over to her and sitting straight up.

"Alright then. What do you have to tell me?" He asked. Kayla's eyebrows furrowed as she recalled what had happened.

"Well, it was like last time! I was in the house and it was all grey and weird and dead and stuff. I didn't like it. I walked around and I saw that boy from the files! Uhhhh...Jackson! He was in a window and I went in the building with it! He was still there! I went over to him and he asked me who I was. I told him I was Kayla and that I would get him out of there. But I couldn't cause I got back before I could figure out how. I touched him though! He was there!" She explained, occasionally making wild hand gestures to accentuate the point. Shayne listened quietly, taking it in before closing his eyes.

"It's strange. This has happened two times already. I doubt its just a coincidence. There's something in these strange episodes you're having. I need to think about it. But we need to see if it happens again at the next venue. There are six missing currently, so we still have four to go. If we can trigger more episodes with the other places, maybe we can get some kind of rhyme or reason out of it." He said. A toothy grin spread across Kayla's face as excitement flashed in her eyes.

"This is really fun! I wish more of our investigations were like this!" She cried. Shayne chuckled, shaking his head.

"I suppose so. It would be more interesting that way, wouldn't it?" He replied, turning away to gather his notes once again. He placed them to the side and plugged in his laptop so it could charge. He then had a small tussle with Kayla over trying to get her into her PJ's and making her brush her teeth. Eventually the girl was finally in bed.

Shayne turned the lights off and plopped into his own bed, closing his eyes.

"Hey Shayne?" Kayla asked quietly from her bed. Shayne opened one eye to look at her, humming in question.

"Do you think mom and dad would be proud of us if they were here now?" She asked quietly. Shayne was quiet, closing his eye before nodding with a small smile.

"I'm sure they would be very proud." He answered. Kayla smiled slightly before frowning once again.

"Do you think you're going to need to use your powers?" She asked. Shayne's mouth set into a thin line, eyebrows furrowing.

"No. Is there a reason you would ask that?" He asked back. Kayla stared at him for a moment before shaking her head furiously.

"I dunno. I just wanna make sure you wouldn't. You get scary when you do it." She replied quietly. Shayne frown deepened, opening his eyes to look at the ceiling.

"I hope to every god that I won't need to. It would be good if I never needed to in fact. But we shouldn't be thinking about that right now. It's time for sleep." He replied tensely. Kayla looked down before flipping over and closing her eyes. Shayne rubbed his face slightly. He really hoped he wouldn't have to.


	12. J'c*n?

Quiet. That was likely the best way he could describe the world around him. Completely and utterly silent. Cold would be another good word to describe it. Anywhere he went there was an ever present chill in the air that he seemed to be unable to shake no matter what he did. He eventually stopped trying to warm up. When he did that he couldn't remember. He just knew that he did. Currently, he was laying on his back inside of an empty building, staring into the ceiling with no clear purpose. There wasn't much else to do other than walking and sitting down to stare blankly into the abyss of this world's sky. He suspected that if he could feel anything, he would be bored more than anything. Very, very, very bored. He hummed an off key tune to some kind of made up song in his head as he pushed himself from the hard floor and began walking forward, no particular destination in mind.

He snapped his fingers along with the tune as his footsteps echoed through the empty halls, probably the only kind of sound in this place, trying his hand at making some kind of beat. He let himself turn in small circles as he went down the hall before stopping and letting himself getting his bearings. He stared at the wall for a few minutes, simply thinking. When he had arrived here, he had no idea where he was. And to an extent, he still didn't. None of the places here held any type of significance to him. Not even the house that he started in. For a moment he wondered if he should be scared of this place. He shrugged it off however. It was a thought for another time. He continued forward through the building, passing windows that looked out onto the street below. He closed his eyes. They stayed that way until something happened. There was a flash somewhere outside in the streets. As soon as that happened, along with it came a flood of emotion that he hadn't been able to feel before.

He nearly fell over from the force of it. Wobbling, he leaned over and gripped the windowsill next to him. He felt scared. He felt confused. He felt a lot of different things, but he had no idea why. He looked up and out the window to where the flash had originated from, frozen in place. He waited. He knew there was something out there, but he wasn't about to seek it out. He gripped the windowsill tighter as he scanned the street. Minutes passed, although they seemed more like hours. But soon enough, he saw something. Someone more correctly. A small girl with black hair, pale skin, and a bright sky blue dress with a sun on the chest and clouds dotting the edges. It was strange and surprising to see actual color for once. He knew what the colors were of course, but he couldn't remember ever actually seeing them. In hindsight, that was even stranger to think of. If the world around was devoid of color, why did he know what it looked like?

The girl suddenly looked up. Straight at him. The two locked eyes, and she froze for a bare second before sprinting inside. He didn't recognize her. He waited, and sure enough, in little more than a minute the girl stumbled into the hall, quite nearly smashing into the wall. He blinked at her.

"Who are you?" He asked. The girl opened and closed her mouth before shaking her head.

"My names Kayla. I'm gonna get you out of here. Or, try to at least. Come on!" She said, walking forward and latching onto his hand. There was a sudden bright flash, and he ducked away, covering his eyes. As the light faded, there was a brief moment where he could see the world around him gain a slight color, including himself. Unfortunately, it didn't last. And with the color, any semblance of emotion he had faded away, leaving him as numb as ever. He stared ahead at where the girl had been, before begining to jog forward. If that girl was anything to go by, he would say it was about time he looked for answers.


	13. Another day another investigation

Shayne buzzed his lips, glancing in the rear view mirror at Kayla, who seemed determined to sing "Let it go" as off key as absolutely possible. The child had a firm hatred of the song for some reason or another, and took every chance she could to make fun of it. Usually Shayne was completely fine with it, but when she's done it a straight nine times in a row non-stop at the highest pitch she could physically do while he is driving and also trying to read the directions on the piece of paper in front of him, it started becoming slightly irritating.

"Kayla, would you mind quieting down back there? I'm trying to follow the directions on the gps and I can't hear it if you keep singing that loudly." He said. Kayla stopped and made a small "o" face.

"Oops. Soooorry Shayne." She apologized. She changed over to humming the same off key tune in a much quieter voice.

"Thank you." Shayne replied, shifting his attention to the road once again.

They continued their drive uninterrupted and soon drove into a small culdesac. Shayne took a second to look at his directions before nodding in satisfaction.

"We're here." he said, parking into the driveway of a small, blue, two story house. The two hopped out, walking to the door. There was muffled talking and music coming through the door as Shayne rang the doorbell. The music and voices stopped, and footsteps came up to the door.

"Who is it?" asked an elderly voice.

"My name is Shayne. I'm the detective in charge of the missing case." He said. There was a click, and the door opened to a small old woman.

"I see, come in then." She said, gesturing inside. They followed her into the house, and they found themselves standing in a small living room. There was a tv, currently muted, that was playing some kind of show that Shayne didn't recognize.

The old woman led them into a kitchen, sitting down at a dining table and inviting them to do the same.

"So, you're here to help us find where poor Julio has gotten off to." She said 1 sighed, shaking her head.

"I would hope so. But nevermind that. If we are to get anywhere, we should begin as soon as possible." She stated. Shayne hummed in response, nodding and taking a few papers from his jacket as well as the small notebook he always kept with him on investigations. Sure it wasn't the most professional way of storing investigation papers, but he was beginning to tire of the process of rifling through multiple folders in a suitcase to find what he was looking for.

"Well, I wouldn't worry. All that's going to happen is I'm going to ask you some questions while my little associate here goes to the victims room to look for clues, if you don't mind of course." He explained. The woman raised a suspicious brow at that, glancing at the child.

After scanning her for a moment, she sighed and shook her head, pointing over at the doorway leading back into the living room.

"His room is upstairs. Second door to the left." She said. Kayla smiled and nodded, hopping off of her chair and quickly striding towards the destination. Shayne felt a small amount of unease creeping into his stomach, mostly because of the fact he wasn't exactly sure if the girl was going to have an episode again. He shook it off, turning his attention back on the woman sitting across from him and unfolded the papers he had pulled from his jacket, placing them onto the table in front of him.

"Now then. Like I said before, all I'm going to do is ask some questions and whatnot. Nothing much. But as protocol states, I need to ask you to be as honest as possible, so as to avoid any misinformation." He said. She nodded.

"This is not a lying matter if I say so myself." She replied. Shayne hummed.

"Excellent. Let us begin then."


	14. Run

Kayla skipped up the stairs, nearly stumbling on the last one but catching herself. She turned and made her way to the room she had been directed to and opened the door. She was immediately hit with an almost sickly sweet smell that made her nose crunch up slightly. Nonetheless she walked in, looking about the room. Like all the times before, she brushed her hand along various objects and whatnot in the room, scanning through their memories quickly. This time however, she wasn't just looking for anything in general. Of course she still looked for the things she was here for in the first place, but in truth she was looking for another close object. Something that may trigger one of her episodes. Something unnatural. She knew the episodes couldn't be a coincidence. Not at all. Not at all. It was like she was getting thrown tiny little pieces of a giant puzzle that was missing half of the other pieces and impossible to fit together.

She sighed, shaking her head slightly. All this thinking about everything was distracting her. If she didn't get all the pieces of the puzzle, she would just have to make due. As she thought that, her hand brushed against a small black spray paint can. Almost immediately, the world cracked. This time however, when the colors faded and she felt all the feeling drain away, she was used to it. She just hoped she wouldn't be too out of it when she woke up. She didn't hesitate to start walking out of the house and around the streets, whistling all the while. Like before, nothing happened for a while. She just kept on walking. She stopped when she heard a noise. Quick, soft footfalls that were slowly getting louder and louder as they got closer. Suddenly, there was a loud distressed cry as someone rounded the corner, stumbling and nearly falling.

"Help! Please!" The boy cried. Kayla jerked up. She shouldn't be surprised that it was the boy they were currently investigating. Julio.

But there was no time to think, as something was wrong. He was looking behind him as he sprinted forward, and Kayla soon saw why. Crawling on four legs along the building behind him was a large, black, humanoid creature with glowing white eyes. She knew those creatures. She nearly froze up, eyes wide. However, she shook her fear off and called out.

"Here! Come here!" She yelled. That drew the boys attention as he looked at her in surprise, but diverted his course to her. He slid to a stop and she grabbed his hand to pull him behind her.

"Uh, what are you doing? We have to run!" Julio said. Kayla shook her head with furrowed brows.

"No. I can handle this. It would outrun us anyway." She replied tensely. Soon enough, the creature was upon them. It jumped onto the ground before them as it's face split open to reveal a terrifying set of long sharp teeth. Kayla took a deep breath and threw her hand forward.

"Shayne! Help!" She screamed. For a moment, the creature continued forward. It was only when its jaws were inches away from her head, when it suddenly froze as a bright light flashed above. It let out an an otherworldly monster-like screech, and scrambled backwards. It stumbled for a second, shaking it's head furiously before giving the two a strange look and crawling away. Kayla let out a long breath, turning to face the boy.

"Are you alright? Did that thing hurt you?" She asked. The boy shook his head.

"No, I'm ok. That was really scary. Who are you?" He replied.

"I'm Kayla. But that's not important. What's important is who you are. You are Julio Escala please try to rememb-" She was cut off as the world shifted once more. It was one she was used to now. She was on the floor with her brother above her as well as the old woman.

"Again?" He asked. He obviously wanted to say more, but glanced over at woman. Kayla nodded.

"Again." She answered bluntly. From there, they were able to finish from there. But this time, they knew they needed to talk.


End file.
